OSLO, NORWAY—According to a Norwegian News Agency report, the cremated remains of children were recovered from the centers of 41 circular stone formations in southeastern Norway. Many of the children buried in the cemetery were infants and all are thought to have been less than six years old at the time of death. Dating of the children’s remains suggests that the site was used for burials for a period of about 400 years, beginning around 800 B.C. Guro Fossum of the Museum of Cultural History said that the stone circles were set close together in an open landscape, but near local thoroughfares. Some of the formations were made with edging stones and a central stone taken from non-local sources. Cooking pits and fireplaces were found around the cemetery, she added, indicating that people may have gathered and held ceremonies there. Burned bone, pottery, and a possible brooch were also recovered from the graves. “It doesn’t appear that all the [pottery] vessels were containers for burnt bones; some were placed between the graves, and we are very curious about what was inside them,” Fossum said. To read about artifacts dating to thousands of years ago that are emerging from ice patches in Norway's Jotunheim Mountains, go to "Letter from Norway: The Big Melt."
